nicety
ni·cety
noun
1.
conformity with some esthetic standard of correctness or propriety
- “it was performed with justness and beauty”
2.
a subtle difference in meaning or opinion or attitude
- “without understanding the finer nuances you can”
- “;”
- “t argue about shades of meaning”
Origin
From Middle English nicetee, from Old French niceté (“simpleness, foolishness”), from nice (“simple, foolish”); equivalent to nice + -e- + -ty.
Phrases
- social nicety
- to a nicety
Related words
Word family
Broader terms
WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.